Price checkMonthly
FreeFreePerformance$15/moScaleCustom
See all 4 plans

All CircleCI Plans & Pricing

Plan Monthly Annual Best For
View all features by plan (compare side-by-side)

Free

  • Up to 6,000 build minutes/month (using small Docker resource class)
  • Up to 5 active users/month
  • 30x concurrency (Docker/Linux/Arm/Windows)
  • 1x concurrency for macOS
  • 2 GB storage included
  • 1 GB network included
  • Community support only

Performance

  • 30,000 credits included monthly
  • 5 active users included (additional users $15/month each)
  • 80x concurrency across most environments
  • Access to larger resource classes (X-large, 2X-large)
  • Docker Layer Caching available
  • 2 GB storage, 5 GB network included
  • Ticket-based global support (8x5 and 12x5 SLA options)
  • Additional credits: $15 for every 25,000 credits

Scale

  • Customizable enterprise-level plans
  • Unlimited concurrency options
  • Access to GPU resources
  • 200 GB storage, 50 GB network included
  • Enterprise controls and single sign-on
  • Self-hosted runners
  • 24x5 and 24x7 SLA options available

Enterprise

  • All Scale features
  • SAML SSO
  • 24/7 dedicated support
  • Dedicated success manager
  • SLA guarantee
  • Custom security and compliance
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What does CircleCI actually cost you?

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Tier
Billing
Your projected cost$375per month · $15/unit × 25units
Year 1 license$4.5K12 months at this rate
At a glance

List price by tier (annualized, per unit)

Per-unit list price across CircleCI's plans, annualized. Custom-priced tiers show a hatched bar.

FreeCustom
Performance$180/yr
ScaleCustom
EnterpriseCustom
Real-world benchmark

Buyers actually pay a median of $68K/yr for CircleCI contracts (Vendr deal flow, n=279). That's a contract total — the more seats, the more leverage to negotiate down.

Quick Answer
Last verified:
Medium confidence

CircleCI costs Free to $15 per month as of August 2026, with 4 plans available including a free tier. Plans: Free (free), and Performance at $15/month. Enterprise pricing is available on request. The median contract is $67,680/year based on 279 verified purchases.

Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.

  • Free tier: Yes

CircleCI offers 4 pricing tiers: Free, Performance, Scale, Enterprise. A free plan is available. Paid plans include Performance at $15/month (starting). The Performance plan is professional teams.

Compared to other developer tools software, CircleCI is positioned at the budget-friendly price point.

  • Median contract: $67,680/yr from 279 purchases Precise
  • Average negotiated discount: 11%
  • 3 documented hidden costs beyond list price
Last verified: | Sources: 1 pricing pages and reviews

How much does CircleCI cost?

CircleCI offers 4 pricing plans, starting with a free tier and scaling to custom enterprise pricing. Plans include Free (free), Performance at $15/month, Scale (custom pricing), Enterprise (custom pricing).

CircleCI Pricing Overview

CircleCI has 4 pricing plans, including a free tier. Paid plans range from $0 to $15/month. The Free plan is free and is best for open source and side projects. The Performance plan costs $15/month, best for professional teams. The Scale plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for scaling organizations. The Enterprise plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for large enterprises.

The median CircleCI customer pays $67,680/year based on 279 verified purchases, with an average 11% discount available through negotiation.

There are at least 3 documented hidden costs beyond CircleCI's list price, including implementation, training, and add-on fees.

This pricing was last verified in June 9, 2026 from 1 independent source.

Try CircleCI Free

CircleCI is a continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) platform that automates software builds, tests, and deployments. It supports virtually any language or framework with customizable workflows and offers both cloud-hosted and self-hosted options.

CircleCI pricing starts with a Free plan including up to 6,000 build minutes/month and 5 active users. The Performance plan starts at $15/month with 30,000 credits and 5 users included. Scale and Enterprise plans offer custom pricing with advanced features like GPU access, unlimited concurrency, and dedicated support.

In this comprehensive guide, we break down CircleCI's pricing tiers, explain the credit system and resource class multipliers, reveal hidden costs like credit expiration, and help you calculate your true CI/CD costs.

How CircleCI Pricing Compares

Compare CircleCI pricing against top alternatives in Developer Tools.

GitHub Actions $0/mo (2,000 min) Compare → GitLab CI/CD $0-99/user/mo Compare → Semaphore Free $15 credits, then ~$0.0075/min View pricing →

Compare CircleCI vs Alternatives

Before committing to CircleCI, compare pricing with these 3 alternatives in the same category.

VSGitHub Actions
Free

Teams already on GitHub wanting native CI/CD integration

Full comparison
VSGitLab CI/CD
Free

Teams wanting all-in-one DevOps platform with built-in CI/CD

Full comparison
VSSemaphore
From $15/min

Teams wanting pay-per-minute CI/CD with no per-seat fee

Compare pricing

All CircleCI alternatives & migration guides

What Companies Actually Pay for CircleCI

The median CircleCI buyer pays $67,680/year based on 279 verified purchase transactions, with an average 11% savings through negotiation.

What companies actually pay $67,680/yr Median across 279 purchases Precise
11% avg. savings
with negotiation
Review scores
Third-party review aggregates, as of Feb 2026
Top pricing complaints
High per-user cost relative to valueLimited options on the free planManual and brittle caching — mistyped cache keys cause stale or missing cachesDifficult to debug build failures with limited support resources
Source: Vendr buyer database — median calculated from 279 real purchase transactions. Savings figure reflects negotiated discounts reported by buyers.

CircleCI Year 1 Total Cost by Company Size

Real deployment costs including licenses, implementation, training, and admin — not just the sticker price.

Solo / Getting Started $0 Year 1 total
free tier with basic features
Total $0

A solo user or very small team getting started with CircleCI on the free plan

Growing Business $15 Year 1 total

A mid-size organization scaling their use of CircleCI

Enterprise (100+ users) Custom pricing — typically negotiated annually, contact sales for quote Year 1 total

A large enterprise deploying CircleCI across the organization

Small Development Team (10 Users, Performance Plan) $150 Year 1 total
$1,800/year
Total $150

10 developers on the Performance plan using standard Linux/Docker builds

Mid-Market Engineering Organization $67,680 Year 1 total
median Vendr deal
Total $67,680

Typical mid-market buyer based on Vendr deal flow across 279 enterprise purchases

How CircleCI Pricing Compares

Software Starting Price Top Price
CircleCI Free $15/month
Amplitude Custom Custom
Clerk Free $300/month
Docker Free $24/user/month
Fly.io $29/month $2500/month
GitHub Free $21/user/month

Detailed pricing comparisons:

Browse all Developer Tools pricing →

3 CircleCI Hidden Costs Beyond the List Price

Beyond the listed price, CircleCI has at least 3 documented hidden costs that can significantly increase total cost of ownership.

Watch for 3 hidden costs
  • Per-Seat Licensing for All Users Including View-Only $15/user/month
    high 1 source
    Hacker News "they also charge $15 per month per seat. You want folks on other teams who use different tools to ever be able to check in on the status of a build? Too bad, buy every one of them their own seat."
  • Build Freeze When Unprovisioned User Signs In $15/user/month
    critical 1 source
    Hacker News "If someone new ever even accidentally tries to sign in with github and you haven't provisioned a seat for them, CircleCI will actually stop running your builds until an admin goes in to upgrade your plan"
  • macOS/iOS Build Pricing Premium 5-15% of license costs
    high 1 source
    Hacker News "MacOs pricing seems so expensive!"
Tip

Ask your CircleCI sales rep about these costs upfront. Getting them in writing before signing can save you from surprise charges later.

Full hidden costs breakdown →

Intelligence sourced from 3 independent sources
Hacker News Tech community Vendr Verified buyer transactions TrustRadius Enterprise reviews
Key claims include inline source attribution. Data verified against multiple independent sources. 13 source citations total.

CircleCI Contract Terms

CircleCI contracts do not auto-renew. Changes require advance notice. These terms are sourced from verified buyer experiences.

Contract Terms
Auto-Renewal No
Minimum Commitment Annual (inferred from Vendr deal flow data showing $67,680/year median contract)
Mid-Term Downgrade Not allowed
Based on 1 verified source

How to Negotiate CircleCI Pricing

CircleCI contracts are negotiable — buyers save an average of 11% off list price. These 8 tactics are sourced from real buyer experiences and procurement specialists.

Negotiation Playbook 8 tactics
Free Tier (6,000 credits/month) to Validate Before Paying high success

CircleCI's free plan includes 6,000 build credits/month. Before paying, validate your CI/CD workflow on the free tier and measure your actual credit consumption. Most small teams can run 50-100 builds/month on free credits.

CircleCI pricing page
Annual Commitment Reduces Per-Credit Cost high success

CircleCI's performance plans are credit-based. Annual prepayment of credits is cheaper than monthly purchases. For teams burning 30,000+ credits/month, enterprise pricing with annual prepayment can cut per-credit cost by 20-30%.

CircleCI enterprise pricing
Target the 11% Average Discount high success

Vendr data from 279 purchases shows buyers save 11% on average from list price. Use this as a floor in negotiations — frame it as an industry benchmark and request at least 11% off before discussing other concessions.

Vendr (deal flow, 279 purchases)
Leverage Native CI Alternatives high success

GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and cloud-native CI tools (AWS CodeBuild, Azure Pipelines, GCP Cloud Build) are increasingly capable. TrustRadius reviewers note CircleCI capabilities are getting built into GitHub and GitLab directly. Demonstrating an active evaluation of these alternatives gives credible negotiation leverage.

TrustRadius review (2020-02-03)
Compare GitHub Actions and GitLab CI Before Renewing medium success

GitHub Actions (included with GitHub Team/Enterprise) and GitLab CI (included with GitLab Premium) provide comparable CI/CD at zero additional cost if you're already paying for those platforms. Use these alternatives to benchmark CircleCI's enterprise pricing — they'll discount to retain accounts.

CI/CD platform pricing comparison
Audit and Reduce Seat Count Before Negotiating medium success

CircleCI charges $15/user/month per provisioned seat. Before renewal, audit who actually needs a seat versus who only occasionally checks build status. Reducing provisioned seat count prior to negotiation avoids paying for view-only users and lowers your baseline.

HN discussion (2020-03-31)
Negotiate Compute Credits and Seats as a Bundle medium success

CircleCI charges for both machine compute credits and per-seat licensing. Negotiate both together as a single package deal rather than separately — bundling gives the sales rep flexibility to discount one lever while maintaining the other, increasing total discount potential.

HN discussion (2020-03-31)
Negotiate at Quarter-End medium success

Like most SaaS vendors, CircleCI sales teams face quarterly quota pressure. Initiating or finalizing negotiations in the final two weeks of a quarter typically yields better discount terms.

Vendr deal flow patterns
High success Medium Low / difficult

Full negotiation guide →

CircleCI Pricing FAQ

01 How much does CircleCI cost?

CircleCI Free includes up to 6,000 build minutes/month and 5 active users. Performance starts at $15/month with 30,000 credits and 5 users included. Scale is billed annually with custom pricing.

02 Does CircleCI have a free plan?

Yes, CircleCI Free includes up to 6,000 build minutes per month (using small Docker resource class), up to 5 active users, 30x concurrency for Docker/Linux/Arm/Windows, 2 GB storage, and community support.

03 What hidden costs should I expect?

Credit consumption varies significantly by resource class (1x to 25x multipliers). macOS builds use credits faster than Linux. Free plan credits don't roll over monthly, and paid plan credits expire after 12 months.

04 Can I negotiate CircleCI pricing?

Yes, Scale and Enterprise tiers have negotiable pricing. Annual commitments and high credit volumes provide leverage.

05 Is annual billing cheaper?

CircleCI offers annual credit packages with volume discounts for predictable usage.

06 CircleCI vs GitHub Actions: Which is cheaper?

GitHub Actions is often cheaper with 2,000 free minutes for private repos. CircleCI offers more parallelism (30x vs 20) and faster builds at higher tiers with 80x concurrency on Performance.

07 What is included in CircleCI Performance?

Performance includes 30,000 credits/month, 5 active users, 80x concurrency, access to larger resource classes (X-large, 2X-large), Docker Layer Caching, 2 GB storage, 5 GB network, and ticket-based support.

08 Does CircleCI offer startup discounts?

Yes, CircleCI offers a startup program with discounted credits for qualifying early-stage companies.

09 Does CircleCI charge per seat even for users who only check build status?

Yes. On the Performance plan, CircleCI charges $15/user/month for every provisioned user, including those who only need to view build status. Team members from other teams who want visibility into CI runs require their own paid seat.

10 What happens if someone accidentally signs into CircleCI without a provisioned seat?

According to user reports, CircleCI will stop running all builds until an admin upgrades the plan to cover the new user. This can cause unexpected CI outages requiring immediate admin intervention and an unplanned seat purchase.

11 Is CircleCI's free plan enough for a small team?

The Free plan includes 6,000 build minutes/month, up to 5 active users, 30x Docker/Linux concurrency, and 2 GB storage. It's sufficient for open-source projects or small teams with modest CI needs. You'll need to upgrade to Performance ($15/user/month) once you exceed 5 users, 6,000 monthly build minutes, or need Docker Layer Caching or larger resource classes.

12 Is macOS/iOS building expensive on CircleCI?

Yes. macOS build minutes cost significantly more than Linux/Docker builds and are limited to 1x concurrency even on the free tier. Teams building iOS or React Native apps frequently cite macOS pricing as a major cost driver and evaluate dedicated mobile CI alternatives.

13 How much do enterprise teams typically pay for CircleCI?

Based on Vendr deal flow data from 279 purchases, the median annual contract is $67,680/year. Buyers negotiate an average 11% discount from list price.

14 Do unused CircleCI build credits roll over each month?

No. Unused build credits on the Free plan do not roll over — they expire at the end of each month. This is relevant for teams with uneven build volumes across months.

Is this pricing incorrect? — we'll verify and update it.